But he goes further than he needs to in arguing that the U.S. Constitution isn’t a product of Enlightenment thinking (“The Dark Side of the Enlightenment,” op-ed, April 7). It is quite true ...

But the scientific, empirical and rational ideas of Enlightenment thinking were brand new and unfamiliar. Thus, when the Framers followed this manner of thought to create the Constitution ...

“At some of the darkest times in both American and British history, Paine put his shoulder to the wheel and never gave up on the possibility of making Enlightenment thinking useful in politics,” said ...

The Enlightenment, Lears reminds us, was supposed to vanquish magical thinking. Whereas premodern societies across the globe held that the universe was alive and that humanity was governed by an i ...

the state of enlightenment. This idea is tremendously challenging. You might be thinking: “Nothing? I am nothing? How could that be?” And yet remember that this nothingness was the foundation ...

In David Graeber’s slim posthumous book, Pirate Enlightenment: Or the Real Libertalia, the anthropologist argues that 18th-century pirate society inspired and influenced European Enlightenment ...

The story of how a stonemasons’ guild became the world's largest secret society is less about conspiracy and more about Enlightenment thinking. The title page of the Freemason Constitution at ...

Fast forward to more modern times, the Age of Enlightenment in the late 17th century was another major influence on the founding fathers. It emphasized rational thinking and valued free will of ...